On February 2, 2012, Tehran hosted the second "Conference on Hollywoodism and Cinema" as part of the 2012 Fajr International Film Festival. The conference was attended by 48 academics from the U.S., the U.K., France, Canada, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Italy, Egypt, Russia, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, and Palestine. As specified in the conference's final statement, it focused on Hollywood's purported role as "the most powerful tool of Zionism" in influencing world opinion according to the interests of the "American-Zionist military-industrial complex," while emphasizing Iran's "ability to be the center for producing elegant anti-Zionist films."[1] The conference addressed five key points: "Narration in Hollywood," "[The] Role of Cinema in the World Awakening," "'The Role of Hollywoodism and Human Decadence," "Portrait of [the] Future in Hollywood," and "Hollywoodism and Zionism." Among the issues discussed at the conference were "Hollywood and Holocaust," "Palestine [i]n the Line of Fire," "Hollywood and Apocalypse," "Hollywood, Darwinism and Liberalism,"[2] and "Hollywood's Exploitation of World Events, Such as the Holocaust and 9/11, for the Sake of Zionist Policies."[3]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, on February 2, 2012, claimed that the West and Zionism use Hollywood's film industry as a means to maintain their world domination, delivered the opening speech for the event, in which he called for a new world order. He also presented an award for "courage, strength, and force" to French revisionist Robert Faurisson, who attended the conference along with several other prominent French Holocaust deniers. Also present was son of Hollywood director Oliver Stone, who converted to Shi'ite Islam during his visit to Tehran.[4]

French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson receiving an award for "courage, strength, and force" from Iranian President Ahmadinejad

French Comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, Director of Co-Produced French-Iranian Film L’Antisémite, Among French Attendees

The conference was attended by a large French delegation comprising numerous Holocaust deniers, such as academic Marie Bruchet, representing Vincent Reynouard; academic Maria Poumier; historian Paul-Eric Blanrue; and filmmaker Beatrice Pignède, who presented her film Main basse sur la Mémoire ("Making Off with Remembrance") about the French anti-revisionist Fabius-Gayssot Act of 1990.

French comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, whose comedy has long centered around antisemitic, anti-Zionist, and revisionist themes, was also present.[5] Recently, he directed a French-Iranian co-production, the film The Antisemite. The film's trailer mocks scenes of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz and the "irrefutable proof" of the Holocaust. The trailer was posted on MEMRI TV on February 16, 2012: http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/3319[6]

Earlier, in a teaser of L'Antisémite posted on Youtube December 12, 2011, the protagonist's wife begs her husband not to be an antisemite, "for the children," as "antisemitism is a disease." Using an overly dramatic tone to lampoon the gravity attributed to antisemitism, the protagonist admits to his wife that he is, indeed, an antisemite, and says that since the Jews control the media, finance, and politics, there is no choice but to "exterminate them." See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rScuwTmKTOY&feature=player_embedded.

As mentioned, President Ahmadinejad presented prominent French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson with an award at the conference and met with him in private. Faurisson's latest paper, titled "Against Hollywoodism, Revisionism," which was likely the basis of his lecture at the conference, explains "Hollywoodism's part in creating the myth of 'the Holocaust'": "'The Holocaust' of the Jews became a sort of religion whose three main components are the extermination, the gas chambers, and the six million martyrs... After the war a whole propaganda developed around this holy trinity of 'the Holocaust', a whole industry of 'the Holocaust', a whole business: the 'Shoah Business.'" For the article in full, see Faurisson's Unofficial Blog.[7] Following are comments posted on this blog regarding the international conference on Hollywoodism:

"On February 2, 2012, in tandem with the thirtieth International Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, President Ahmadinejad inaugurated an international conference on Hollywoodism… Amongst the participants at this conference were three anti-Zionist and anti-revisionist rabbis, respectively from Britain, the United States and Canada, along with some other Americans (one of them a Jewish intellectual) and a large French contingent…

"More than courageous, [Ahmadinejad's] conduct is heroic. The man and his people, cruelly affected by the West's blockade, aspire only to peace. It is absurd to claim that Iran would take the initiative of launching atomic bombs or any other bombs on the State of Israel, since inevitably those bombs would kill and maim as many Muslims and Christians as Jews…

"If there is nonetheless a bomb that Ahmadinejad will not hesitate to use, it is the one I have called 'the poor man's atomic bomb,' the bomb of revisionism which, killing or maiming no one, will get the better of a huge imposture, – that of 'the Holocaust' or 'Shoa' – which, for its part, serves to justify ad infinitum new wars and new crusades. Too many minds in the Western world remain conditioned by the 'Holocaust Industry' and 'Shoa-business' but, thanks to revisionism, recovery is possible and, by the same token, peace could once again have some chance." [8]

Iranian President Ahmadinejad greets an anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jew bearing a placard with the Palestinian flag[9]

French Holocaust Denier Paul-Eric Blanrue Honored at Ceremony for Biographical Film on Faurisson

Robert Faurisson was invited to the conference in part on account of a documentary film about him titled Un Homme[10] ("A Man") directed by Paul-Eric Blanrue, who was also invited and to whom tribute was also paid. In Blanrue's one-and-a-half-hour film, Faurisson answers questions pertaining to his life. In a website dedicated to the film, it is available for download free of charge with English, German, Arabic, Italian, and Croatian dubs.

Paul-Eric Blanrue's own blog, "Le clan des Vénitiens,"[13] features news pertaining to his antisemitic activities. Blanrue has published a book titled Sarkozy, Israël et les Juifs ("Sarkozy, Israel, and the Jews"), which was translated into Arabic and Farsi, in which he aims to show that Sarkozy, whom he depicts as unconditionally pro-Zionist, promoted Israeli interests at the expense of those of France.

Blanrue's blog features numerous pictures of the "Conference on Hollywoodism and Zionism," in which "anti-Zionist researchers from various countries gathered." The main idea conveyed at the conference, according to Blanrue, was that "Hollywoodism" is the "Pentagon's main weapon."

*N. Maruani is a research fellow at MEMRI. A. Savyon is director of the Iranian Media Project.